Congressman Andy Barr deserves credit for helping KY businesses with COVID-19 relief

I would like to express appreciation to Congressman Andy Barr for his leadership during the launch of the CARES Act’s Payroll Protection Program (PPP). His efforts to help Kentucky small businesses and assist banks like ours (Stock Yards Bank & Trust Company) that would be providing these loans, began before the program publicly launched, and continued until allocated funds were no longer available and the Small Business Administration (SBA) closed the program until more funding was approved.

Below are specific and meaningful ways Congressman Barr helped Kentucky businesses and banks navigate through the PPP process:

•With U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and Andy Barr (a senior member on the House Committee on Financial Services), Kentucky’s needs were a part of every conversation in the design of the CARES Act. They and their staffs worked around the clock on this difficult implementation and maintained constant communication with both the SBA and the Treasury to iron out details of the PPP and propose needed changes.

•Congressman Barr along with several Financial Services Committee Leadership colleagues wrote a letter to Secretary Mnuchin and SBA Administrator Carranza asking the SBA and the Treasury to adjust the terms of the program, first published on March 31st, to allow more community banks to participate and provide more certainty for participating lenders.

•As soon as the CARES Act passed, he created a small business response team in the Lexington office to field questions from small businesses and lenders about the impacts of the CARES Act and resources they may need. He also connected constituent businesses with the appropriate resources and advocated for needed changes to the Administration.

•Congressman Barr participated in numerous conference calls with the Vice President, Treasury Secretary and senior Administration officials, raising issues directly affecting Kentucky small businesses and lenders.

•Throughout the PPP launch on Friday, April 3rd, his office worked directly with banks facing issues and the SBA to get them resolved quickly. Some banks had difficulty accessing the government servers (eTran) with loan applications. He and his staff offered to hand walk their information to the SBA. And, without regard to party affiliation, they did.

•Congressman Barr teleconferenced weekly with community banks statewide, asked what their customers and communities needed, listened to every question or comment and, more importantly, executed on the follow through regarding those concerns.

•He aggregated a list, in coordination with the state banking trade association, of banks across Kentucky having trouble accessing the eTran system and relayed that list to Treasury and SBA through House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. The list was intended to help SBA and the Treasury triage and prioritize outstanding access issues.

TV and radio tend to focus on political sound bites to garner media coverage. In contrast, Congressman Barr was down in the trenches dealing with administrative issues and solving issues. This shows his dedication to the welfare of Kentuckians and highlights his work ethic as a great Congressman for our country. His efforts led to over $4.1 billion in Kentucky PPP loans funded, helping almost 24,000 companies receive much needed stimulus money to pay their employees. And these numbers will grow with the second round of available funding. Every PPP loan funded saved jobs.

James A. (Ja) Hillebrand is the Chief Executive Officer of Stock Yards Bank & Trust Company.

This story was originally published May 7, 2020 at 10:38 AM.